Sea cucumbers have following taxonomic position.
Subkingdom: Metazoa                Phylum: Echinodermata                    Sub-Phylum: Eleutherozoa                            Class: Holothuroidea                                                
Subclasses: Aspidochirotacea, Dendrochirotacea, Apodacea                Orders: Dendrochirota, Aspidochirota, Elasipoda, Molpadonia and Apoda        
Amongst these orders sea cucumber Holothuria scabra belongs to:                Order: Aspidochirota                    Family: Holothuriidae                            Genus: Holothuria                 Species: scabra                                                 
Echinoderms are coelomate invertebrates which are exclusively marine, never colonial, are unsegmented with a basic pentameric radial, symmetry in the adult form, no head or brain, and distinguished from all other animals by structural peculiarities of skeleton and coelom. Class Holothuroidea has animals with body bilaterally symmetrical, usually elongated in the oral-aboral axis having mouth at or near one end and anus at or near the other end. The body surface is coarse, endoskeleton reduced to microscopic spicules or plates embedded in the body wall, mouth surrounded by a set of tentacles attached to water vascular system; podia or tube feet are usually present and locomotory; alimentary canal is long and coiled and cloaca usually with respiratory trees; sexes are usually separate and gonad single or paired tuft of tubules. They are sedentary forms either attached to hard substrate or burrow into soft sediments with anterior and posterior ends projected. There are more than 1000 species of holothuroids. They vary from 2 cm to 2 meter in length. They are among a few of the animals whose habitat is not restricted by ocean depths. Some of the species are reported to be making 50% of life forms at 4000 m and 90% at 8000 m depths. The species Holothuria scabra also called by some as Metriatyla scabra Jaegea is widely distributed in East Africa, Red Sea, Bay of Bengal, East India, Australia, Japan, South Pacific, Philippines, Indian Ocean and other Indo-Pacific regions. It is used for human/animal consumption in Sabah, Malaysia and Indonesia and other Indo-Pacific countries.